1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method, system, and program for managing fax jobs in a network computing system and, in particular, using one machine to render fax jobs for multiple fax servers that manage fax jobs in a network environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
In network computing systems, users at client computers may send and receive facsimiles through a shared system to centrally manage fax resources for network users. One prior art implementation of a network facsimile system uses one or more fax servers that are dedicated to receiving, rendering, transmitting, and otherwise managing facsimile jobs from network users. The dedicated fax servers have modem ports to directly transmit the fax message as well as perform all fax management related operations. One disadvantage of using server class machines as the fax server is the substantial cost of server machines. Another disadvantage is that such fax servers would be limited to rendering fax documents created in server based applications. However, network users most likely create fax documents with common application programs that are more likely to execute on personal computer oriented machines, such as word processors, graphics programs, spreadsheet programs, etc., that do not run efficiently or at all on the server machine. Thus, users could not use the fax server to transmit the type of documents they are most likely to have.
Another prior art network fax solution involves the use of a Windows NT server as a dedicated fax server that receives, renders, transmits and otherwise manages the facsimile message. The Windows NT fax server includes a modem port to transmit the facsimile as well as perform all fax management related operations. One disadvantage of this approach is that the Windows NT machine performs both fax rendering as well as fax transmission operations. Because both these operations are computationally intensive, in large network environments, many of these Windows NT machines must be provided to perform both rendering and fax transmission. A further disadvantage of this approach is that the network must incorporate a Windows NT system and then install the server software on the Windows NT dedicated fax server to integrate with the overall system. This installation of the server software with the Windows NT is often undesirable from an integration and compatibility standpoint.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a more cost effective approach for managing the facsimile transmission of documents in a network environment that avoids incompatibility and integration problems with the current network architecture.